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Defined Contribution Plans
The Chairpersons of two of the leading retirement plan committees in Congress are calling for a review of…target-date funds.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, and Rep. Robert Scott (D-VA), Chairman of the House Committee on...
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Pre-retirement withdrawals— often referred to as “leakage” from retirement accounts—are allowed under certain circumstances, subject to certain penalties or additional taxes. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) recently issued a report to Congress summarizing its efforts to better understand...
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Tomorrow the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee will be focusing on a markup of what’s been called SECURE 2.0, legislation that includes a number of key provisions championed by the American Retirement Association.
According to Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA), the Committee will begin...
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A legislative proposal has reemerged in Congress seeking to use proceeds from a tax that would hit retirement savings to pay for making public colleges and universities tuition-free.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), on April 21...
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Plan fiduciaries have struck a deal in a suit alleging imprudent investments—but the investment consultant who recommended the challenged funds is still facing trial.
The suit was filed nearly two years ago against the plan fiduciaries of the $5.2 billion Lowe’s 401(k) plan and Aon Hewitt...
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A new paper by Morningstar updates previous findings exploring how 401(k) participants responded during the first quarter of 2020 to see what, if anything, changed over the course of the year.
The paper explores the allocation decisions of 520,556 individuals actively participating in a 401(k)...
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Profound and far-reaching changes took place just a little over a year ago. Panelists at an April 19 session of the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s 2021 National Conference took a look at what it all meant—and means—for retirement plans and participants.
The panel included Bradley Bonno,...
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The popularity of virtual and self-service 401(k) educational sessions has grown since the start of the pandemic, but apparently that trend was accelerating even before then.
According to new data from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, workers favored online retirement education in 2020 and were...
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Alleging that “…Defendants did not engage in any objectively reasonable and/or prudent efforts when paying fees for RPS to covered service providers…,” a $4 billion plan finds itself in the litigation crosshairs.
This time the target is the Kimberly Clark Corporation 401(k) and Profit Sharing Plan...
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Despite investors’ overall confidence in reaching their retirement goals, a new survey finds that many are unsure of how they will manage and spend their money in retirement.
According to the Capital Group’s latest Wisdom of Experience investor survey, fewer than one in five American adults (19...
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Several factors are placing pressures on the U.S. retirement system, leaving the industry facing a decelerating revenue growth outlook, but a new report suggests there are “opportunities hiding in plain sight.”
Rising industry-wide fee pressure is one area placing constraints on the profitability...
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While there were definitely some blustery headwinds, the average 401(k) closed out the first quarter on a strong note.
By this point in the calendar a year ago, we had all (just) awakened to the dangers of the Coronavirus. And in a month of extraordinary market volatility, in March 2020 the Dow...
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The IRS’ Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) provides a means by which filers can correct errors before they are told to do so, but the good intentions entailed in using it do not guarantee that there will not be errors in the filings intended to correct mistakes. The IRS has outlined the top...
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Just three weeks before a trial date, a class action lawsuit with a “long litigation history” has settled for just under $10 million—along with a cut for plaintiffs’ attorneys “slightly above the presumptively reasonable fee of 25%...”
The settlement—which will wind up covering some 17,000...
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After prioritizing COVID-related initiatives in 2020, a new survey finds that many defined contribution plan sponsors expect to return to their pre-pandemic priorities.
The results of NEPC’s Defined Contribution COVID Impact Poll reveal that nearly half of all respondents expect a return to “...
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Retirees face a difficult job figuring out how to draw down their 401(k) and often claim Social Security the earliest they can, but a new white paper suggests that a “Social Security bridge” could be a helpful solution.
In “How Best to Annuitize Defined Contribution Assets?,” Alicia Munnell, Gal...
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Despite one of the most challenging periods in recent memory, a new study finds that DC plans continued to perform their critical role in preparing workers for retirement.
Throughout 2020, the majority of the more than 1.1 million participants in over 1,000 John Hancock open architecture DC...
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Self-directed participants who stood pat in the face of volatility and early 2020 market lows were rewarded with solid gains, according to the latest findings from Charles Schwab’s SDBA Indicators Report.
The firm’s year-end 2020 report of participant investment activity within self-directed...
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A new study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute examining individual account (IA) retirement plans finds that defined contribution balances grew modestly between 2016 and 2019, but their prevalence is much higher than they were in 1992.
In "The Status of American Families’ Accumulations in...
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While there is a lot of discussion about how COVID-19 has affected retirement security, a new paper suggests that things could have been a lot worse.
COVID could have worsened the picture for 401(k) plans if financial markets had collapsed, the recession had led to widespread withdrawals, or...
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